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The Union Catholic girls nearly broke the national record when they shattered the NJ record and blew up the track with an electrifying victory in the sprint medley relay on Friday night at the Arcadia Invitational in California.
The quartet of senior Taylor Cox, sophomore Sydney Chadwick, senior Taylor Aska, and sophomore Paige Sheppard combined to stop the clock at 3:48.83 to blitz the field with the second fastest time run in U.S. high school history.
UC's time of 3:48.83 just missed the national record of 3:47.65 that Rush-Henrietta of New York, anchored by Sammy Watson (2:03.08), ran to finish first at the 2015 New Balance National Championships at the University of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C. UC smashed the NJ record of 3:50.82 set by Columbia when it won the SMR at the 2014 New Balance Nationals at the University of North Carolina A&T.
But there's more to UC's SMR story!
They also had a "B" Team run 3:58.69, No. 9 in NJ history, to place third!! That's right, 8 girls combined to run a pair of sub 4:00 races in the SMR!!!! That's a whole lot of smoke on the track from one team!!
On the winning squad, Cox and Chadwick combined to run 48.07 on their 200 legs, Aska went 54.62 for 400, and Sheppard dropped a 2:06.14 on her 800 anchor carry!
The B squad for UC consisted of junior Jola Strayhorn and sophomore Abriyah Thompson on the 200's, freshman Maya Wyche (58.63), and sophomore Sophia Thompson anchored in 2:08.99.
There's more.
The UC boys and girls also sparkled in the 4x800 relays.
In the boys 4x800, Elijah McCoy NJ, Keandre Kelly, Ciaran Brosnan and Quintin Clemons, ran a NJ No. 1 time of 7:46.29 to place third.
On the girls side, Jimmiea King, Kayla Devine, Aubrey Devers and Emmy O'Hearn teamed up to finish fifth in 9:09.00, the 9th fastest time in the nation this season and No. 1 in NJ. Devine, a sophomore, threw down a 2:14.30 split on the second leg, and O'Hearn, a junior, cam up big by dropping a PR split of 2:16.73 on the anchor!